The Vice President for Research and Academic Programs is a member of the Newberry’s senior leadership team, reporting to the President. The Vice President for Research and Academic Programs provides leadership and intellectual vision to the Newberry in the areas of research and academic programs and public engagement and collaborates closely with the President and Vice President for Collections and Library Services to set strategic priorities for research and educational programs at the Newberry. The VP for Research and Academic Programs also plays a critical role as the Newberry’s chief academic representative internally, with staff and the library’s Board of Trustees, and externally, with colleagues at peer institutions, including libraries, universities, foundations, other cultural institutions, and community organizations.

The Vice President for Research and Academic Programs oversees roughly 18 employees (directly supervising six) in the Newberry’s four research centers, fellowship programs, scholarly programs, undergraduate programs, and public engagement efforts: adult seminars, teacher and student programs, and public programs. The VP for Research and Academic Programs also collaborates with the division’s department heads and other Newberry staff to develop, plan, implement, fundraise, and review programs that make use of the Newberry’s collection, staff expertise, and partnerships. The VP for Research and Academic Programs is responsible for budget supervision, personnel management, and program evaluation for the Research and Academic Programs Division, also known as the Newberry Institute for Research and Education.

The Vice President’s responsibilities include:

• Managing and providing leadership to the Newberry’s research centers: the Center for Renaissance Studies, the program in Chicago Studies, the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies, and the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography
• Leading the Newberry’s fellowship program, including engendering a strong sense of community among the fellows and leading review of applications for fellowships at the Newberry
• Managing and providing leadership to the library’s scholarly programs, undergraduate programs, and public engagement events
• Participating through leadership and collaboration in the development, implementation, and review of the Newberry’s academic and research projects
• Collaborating with colleagues in development and other staff in relevant fundraising activities, including grant applications
• Developing and sustaining partnerships with peer academic, cultural, community, and philanthropic organizations
• Cultivating relationships with scholars and leaders at peer institutions and community organizations

Qualifications                    

• PhD in a field relevant to the Newberry’s collections, with a record of scholarly achievement
• Commitment to collaborative public humanities work, including envisioning and developing public and scholarly programs that engage broad and diverse audiences
• Aptitude for administration in academic and/or cultural institutions, including management of intellectual, personnel, and financial resources
• Ability to provide leadership at the Newberry and represent the library to diverse scholarly and public audiences
• Ability to advocate for humanities scholarship and programming, including through grant-writing and fundraising
• Understanding of opportunities and challenges facing the humanities, higher education, and cultural institutions
• Knowledge of directions and practices in digital humanities, including the ways that scholars and libraries build and use digital resources, both for individual and collaborative research
• Commitment to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion